Carrefour has joined forces with Meridiam to become the first retailer to offer a complete range of electric vehicle charging terminals

To help achieve the target that France’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition has set itself of installing 100,000 charging terminals, thereby speeding up the switch over to electric vehicles on as wide a scale as possible, Carrefour is making mobility easier for its customers by bringing electric vehicle charging infrastructure to all of its hypermarkets.

Altogether, nearly 2000 charging points will be rolled out between now and 2023 in partnership with Meridiam, the leading long-term investor specialising in essential infrastructure.

Carrefour is rolling out an electro-mobility service completely powered by green energy

Carrefour has already installed 70 charging terminals at a number of its stores, but it is now speeding up and broadening its rollout programme.

2000 terminals will gradually be installed between now and 2023 across all of the Group’s hypermarkets in France. And they will be completely powered by green energy. Each hypermarket will have an average of ten of its parking spaces fitted with recharging systems.

The Group is looking into a second charging infrastructure rollout wave for its Carrefour Market and franchised stores.

Charging terminals that everyone can use

Carrefour is the first retailer in France to offer its customers a complete electro-mobility solution with terminals ranging from 22 kW to 350 kW, meeting its users’ various requirements:

• a 22 kW “comfort” charging service that is free for the first hour for customers with loyalty cards or Carrefour PASS cards In one hour, customers with city vehicles can charge their battery to 50% capacity for free.
• a 50 kW to 350 kW fast to ultrafast charging service. These terminals will deliver a complete recharge in between 15 and 45 minutes, depending on the vehicle.
• a free service for charging new soft mobility solutions, such as e-bikes and e-scooters.

Through this initiative, Carrefour and its partners will be providing customers with electric mobility hubs, meeting the market’s current and future needs for a long-term charging solution.

Jérôme Nanty, Executive Director for Human Resources and Assets for the Group and France said: This ambitious rollout is yet another of Carrefour’s commitments designed to facilitate the energy transition. Our regional coverage means that Carrefour’s charging service will be one of the most extensive in the country, as well as one of the highest quality ones: 56% will be superchargers.

Thierry Déau, founder and CEO of Meridiam said:

This project is in line with our mission and is another example of the very real initiatives that we are implementing to deliver the energy transition in France. It is also evidence of our long-term commitment to France’s regions and the people who live in them. We are very proud of the widescale rollout that these electric vehicle charging terminals – that anyone can use with any type of vehicle – have had in France in partnership with leading retailer Carrefour. This initiative deployed over the whole country is a milestone in our achieving our aim to build a rapid charging network on a European scale.

A long-term partnership with Meridiam

Carrefour has decided to join forces with Meridiam, a long-term investor specialised in essential infrastructure. Meridiam will completely fund the charging service. This project further illustrates Meridiam’s commitment to France’s regions and the people who live in them. Over the past ten years, it has already invested more than €12 billion in clean mobility and ecological transition projects in France. This partnership shores up its commitment to build sustainable infrastructure that has a positive economic, social and environmental impact.

Meridiam will entrust implementation of this new project to Allego, Europe’s leading charging hub provider which currently operates more than 25,000 charging points. Its expertise will ensure that Carrefour’s hypermarket customers get a service that is of the best possible quality when they are recharging their electric vehicles.

Another milestone in the fight against climate change

This project is another example of what Carrefour is doing for clean energy and to help bring about its own energy transition. Carrefour has committed to cutting its CO2 emissions by 40% by 2025 and by 70% by 2050. Thanks to its efforts along the whole length of the value chain – from logistics transport (fleets which run on biomethane) and to store consumption (energy efficiency plans, photovoltaic electricity production with Urbasolar, etc.), the Group is one of the top 2% of companies in the world that are leading the fight against climate change, according to the CDP Climate.

For Meridiam, this project bolsters its commitment to build positive-impact sustainable infrastructure. It is fully in line with its strategy to contribute directly to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, particularly fighting climate change (SDG 13) and speeding up the energy transition (SDG 7).